Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's some more info about the post a few days ago(switching to larger prey). It's a very small yellow female at most 2 months old, I've only gotten her to eat twice, 2 live fuzzies, she is in the middle of her first shed, good temperment, only problem is the only time she has eaten is when I'm not around, the fuzzies were so harmless I had no worries about injury to her so I left them in with her. If i wait around she pays no attention at all the the prey. Should I try live rat pups? Any help again is welcome.

` Some babies are shy about eating. It is instinct, they can't defend themselves well, when eating. Also, when full, some will regurge, if they feel threatened, or just insecure. ( That's where the old baloney about Anacondas being so mean that they will regurge their food, just to attack and eat it again. It took a person of great ignorance of snakes to find that reason for what they saw in the wild. )
` Try introducing pre-killed food about 10 minutes before lights out. Then, leave it overnight. A stable photoperiod, which changes with the seasons, and mimics your local day cycle, also often helps nervous Boids to calm down. It's also a must for conditioning for breeding. If you're using lights, use a timer set to on just after sunrise, and off just before sunset, assuming your snakes are in a room with windows. If you keep them in an area where their night cycle is interrupted by room lights, that can cause certain individuals harm.
` At this time, whatever rodent she is willing to eat is what I'd give her. Once she's eating regularly you can go to a more nutritious food, like rats. My big male really likes adult mice, though his normal food is rats, and rabbits. So, every once in a while, I buy a few hundred frozen mice. It's fun to feed them to him. He eats them like jellybeans, just gulps one and opens up for another. It's fun to feed him these for a show. Folks, especially other snake keepers, can't believe him hand feeding on those mice. He will eat 30 or so, at one time. They're like Chinese food to him, he's always hungry a few hours later. lol
` I hope that helps.
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np